P5+1 powers and Iran agree to nuclear ‘framework’

There is one certainty that you can take to the bank: regardless of whatever the P5+1 world powers and Iran agree to, Neocon Tea-Publicans will reject it in knee-jerk opposition, because they have invested years in preparing for their Neocon war against Iran. It simply does not matter to them what is in any agreement; they want to get their war on with Iran.

The bloodlust of these sociopaths willing to send your sons and daughters to die in a war in Iran, a war that they themselves will never dirty their hands nor risk their lives fighting but from which they will profit financially, and perhaps politically, rather than to exhaust every diplomatic avenue for peaceful settlement, is truly disturbing and is unconscionable.

From the Whitehouse:

In November 2013, the P5+1 and Iran took an important first step toward that goal with the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), which halted the progress of Iran’s program and rolled back it back in key areas for the first time in nearly a decade. The IAEA has verified that Iran has met all of its obligations under the JPOA.

Today, after many months of principled diplomacy building on the JPOA, we have achieved a framework for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Negotiators from Iran and major world powers reached agreement Thursday on a framework for a final agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions, an accord that President Obama hailed as a “good deal” that would make the world a safer place.

Participants in the talks said the sides, including the United States and its key European allies, would promptly start drafting a final accord to be completed by a June 30 deadline.

Obama, in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden shortly after the deal was announced, said the United States and its partners “reached a historic understanding with Iran, which, if fully implemented, will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” Transcript of Obama’s remarks.

He said he was convinced that the deal would leave the United States, its allies and the world safer.

“It is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives,” he said. “This deal would cut off every pathway that Iran could take” to build nuclear weapons.

He said the accord calls for “the most robust and intrusive inspections” ever negotiated for any nuclear deal in history. Obama added that “if Iran cheats, the world will know it.”

Seeking to head off what he called “inevitable” criticism, he asked whether anyone really thinks that the deal is “a worse option than the risk of another war in the Middle East.”

I’m sorry, Mr. President, but yes, there are many people who are deeply invested in a war with Iran. The cost in American blood and treasure, the risk of escalation into a regional conflict, and even into a conflict between nuclear superpowers does not concern them nor deter them. Any more than the catastrophe that their Neocon war of adventure into Iraq has unleashed in the Middle East concerns them or deters them. They are sociopaths without conscience.

Obama said he would personally assure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a forceful critic of the negotiations with Iran, that the accord is the best way to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. He said he would also “make clear our unshakable commitment” to Israel’s security.

* * *

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a news conference that if Iran violates the agreement, the sanctions can be “snapped back into place.”

He expressed hope that members of Congress would “give us the time and space” needed to fully explain the agreement.

“Today we have taken a decisive step,” said Federica Mogherini, the foreign policy chief of the European Union. “We have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action.”

In a statement read to reporters, Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Iran would limit the operation of uranium-enrichment centrifuges to one site — Natanz — and would convert its controversial Fordow enrichment site into a center for nuclear physics and technology research. The Fordow site, which Iran secretly built deep inside a mountain near Qom, had raised alarm because it was less vulnerable to attack if used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.

“There will not be any fissile material at Fordow,” Mogherini said in English. Zarif read the same statement in Farsi.

They also said that a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak would be rebuilt so that it could not be used to produce any weapons-grade plutonium. “There will be no reprocessing, and the spent fuel will be exported,” they said.

In return, nuclear-related sanctions against Iran will be terminated by the European Union and the United States, subject to verification that Iran is meeting terms of the agreement, the statement said.

A Fact Sheet on the accord distributed by the State Department said Iran agreed to reduce its installed centrifuges by approximately two-thirds — from about 19,000 today to 6,104 — with only 5,060 of them enriching uranium for 10 years. It said all 6,104 would be first-generation machines, not the more advanced ones that Iran has acquired.

The fact sheet said Iran further agreed not to enrich uranium above the level of 3.67 percent for at least 15 years. That level of low-enriched uranium is suitable as fuel for nuclear power plants — Iran’s stated rationale for enriching uranium — but not as fissile material for nuclear weapons, which require uranium enriched to about 90 percent purity.

Iran has agreed to reduce its current stockpile of about 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of low-enriched uranium to 300 kilograms (660 pounds) for 15 years, the fact sheet said.

The summary said Iran’s “breakout” timeline — the time it would take for Iran to acquire enough fissile material to build one atomic bomb, if it chose to pursue such weapons — would be extended to at least one year, for a duration of at least 10 years, compared to the current assessment of two to three months.

The agreement calls for tightened monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that nuclear materials or components are not diverted to any secret weapons program.

* * *

Before Thursday’s announcement in Lausanne, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept up his unrelenting criticism of an agreement with Iran.

“Yesterday, an Iranian general brazenly said, and I quote, Israel’s destruction is nonnegotiable. But evidently giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to a bomb is negotiable,” he said in a statement from Jerusalem.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was visiting Israel on Wednesday with a congressional delegation, said in an appearance with Netanyahu: “Regardless of where in the Middle East we’ve been, the message has been the same: You can’t continue to turn your eye away from the threats that face all of us.”

Israel has been developing nuclear weapons at its Dimona site in the Negev since 1958, and many nonproliferation analysts like David Albright estimate that Israel may have stockpiled between 100 to 200 warheads using the plutonium reprocessed from Dimona. The Israeli government refuses to confirm or deny possession of nuclear weapons, although this is now regarded as an open secret after Israeli low level nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu—subsequently arrested and sentenced for treason by Israel—published evidence about the program to the British Sunday Times in 1986.

On September 18, 2009 the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency called on Israel to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection and adhere to the non-proliferation treaty as part of a resolution on “Israeli nuclear capabilities,” which passed by a narrow margin of 49–45 with 16 abstentions. The chief Israeli delegate stated that “Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution.”

One response to “P5+1 powers and Iran agree to nuclear ‘framework’”

Very well done, Meanie! I agree that sociopathic greedheads will not be deterred from their march to war with Iran. The double standard Israel holds is evident for all who want to see. Israel is insistent upon Middle East hegemony and Iran is an obstacle to that.

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